Police ID Officer Who Killed Teen Bystander And Suspect In Store

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department Thursday released the name of the officer who shoot and killed an assault suspect and teen bystander at the North Hollywood Burlington Coat Factory.

According to the department, Officer William Jones of the LAPD's North Hollywood station was the shooter. The LAPD released officer body camera and store surveillance footage of the shooting earlier this week. Armed officers can be seen swarming the scene where a man was beating a woman with a metal bike lock, and at least one officer can be heard urging the team to slow down in the seconds before the gunshots rang out.

In bodycam video, armed officers entered the store and approached the suspect. One held a rifle and pushed to the front of the pack as the officers went through the store in formation.

Other officers repeatedly said “slow down” and “slow it down” as the officer with the rifle moves forward.

“She’s bleeding!” an officer shouted as they encountered the victim, crawling on the blood-stained floor. The suspect was on the other side of the aisle.

“Hold up! Hold up!” another officer screamed just before three shots rang out.

The officer holding the rifle fired, police said.

Unbeknownst to the officers, 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta and her mother were huddled in a changing room on the other side of the wall behind the chaotic scene. The girl had been trying on Christmas dresses two days before Christmas when the shooting occurred. The teen died within moments in her mother's arms.

Community activists called for criminal prosecution of the officer, who was placed on administrative leave following the shooting that took the life of the teen as well as assault suspect Daniel Elena Lopez, 24.

The Los Angeles Police Department has released no other immediate information about the officer who fired the shot.

According to audio of the 911 calls the officers were responding to, witnesses had reported a man assaulting people, and possibly firing shots, inside the Burlington store. In one call, a store employee tells a dispatcher a suspect is in the store attacking people with a bike lock. In another, a woman reports the sound of shots being fired in the store, saying there's "a guy with a gun."

Another caller reports that her mother was hiding inside the store because of a man making threats. She added, "I don't know if he has a gun, I don't know what he has, but they're hiding."

While the video released by the LAPD shows the suspect with the cable lock in his right hand, there is no indication he is armed with a gun, and it is unclear if he advanced on any officers before the shots rang out. Police have said no gun was found at the scene.

A GoFundMe page established to benefit the teen's family had raised nearly $30,000 by midday Tuesday.

City News Service, the Associated Press and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.